As North Carolina approves fracking tests, one community says it is disproportionately affected by pollution from coal ash ponds. Concerns over high levels of strokes, cancer and nerve damage have prompted a civil rights probe into environmental racism.

The NAACP announced its probe Wednesday. It is specifically aimed
at uncovering whether environmental racism has played a part in
the placement of coal ash waste water and fracking test sites in
Stokes County, North Carolina. The investigation has implications
for communities of color nationwide, as well as for North
Carolina’s decision-making processes determining where power
plants and waste facilities are placed.

"We wish we didn’t have to, but we are committed to doing so,
to investigate and really bring justice around this issue of coal
ash and about fracking, and about the injustices of these
industries that operate without any regard for the human rights
of the people who are impacted by this pollution," Jacqui
Patterson, director of the NAACP Environmental and Climate
Justice Program, said at a news conference in North Carolina,
according to Common Dreams.

The NAACP will be working with the organization’s North Carolina
and Stokes County chapters during the investigation.

In an interview with RT, Patterson added that there have already
been reports of health issues in Stokes County.

“The folks there have reported clusters of health impacts
they are seeing in their communities, whether it is nerve damage,
high levels of strokes, a number of odd cancers,” she said.
“They are tying it to the pollution of the coal ash
pond.”

Patterson said coal ash is residue left from burning coal to
create electricity. It is either stored in piles or put into coal
ash ponds. The ash contains innumerable concentrated toxins from
selenium to lead to manganese.

The investigation could lead to a lawsuit, but Patterson said the
organization first needs to find out what is going on and
document not only the placement of the coal ash ponds, but the
movement of the toxins, including how far they travel.

“Are they leeching into the groundwater? Are they leeching
into the ground where people are growing food and then eating the
food? Where are those points of exposure? Who is living there?
What are the health impacts? What do hospital records show?”
said Patterson.

Patterson argued that because poor communities are often not
politically powerful, residents think companies are choosing to
dump in those areas because they won’t find much resistance. This
could be evidence of environmental racism, she said. Corporations
and government officials, when approached, argue the sites are
chosen because the property is less expensive or because water is
available, stressing the choice of locations in minority areas is
not intentional.

Patterson said it will be hard to prove intent, but the
investigation will explore whether there is a pattern of
discrimination in the location of facilities and the resulting
impact on community health. If a pattern of discrimination is
established to exist, a lawsuit will be filed to exact justice.

“Wherever there are coal plants, there is coal ash, and
unfortunately 68 percent of African-Americans live within 30
miles of a coal-fired power plant. So disproportionately,
African-Americans, other communities of color, and low-income
communities are exposed to these coal ash facilities,” she
told RT. “We are seeing this in different places as well. So
not only disproportionate locations, but also health impacts and
poor health clusters.”

The NAACP investigation begins just days after the state’s
environmental regulators issued the first contracts allowing the
launch of fracking tests at select locations. One of those sites
is Walnut Tree, a majority black community located in Stokes
County – a county that is more than 90 percent white.